I had the opportunity to speak with Kennedy Ricci, President and CEO of 4Air, dedicated to finding solutions in sustainable aviation

Kennedy Ricci speaks about his experience as President of 4AIR, and what sustainability looks like for the aviation industry. 4AIR offers subscriptions to carbon offset programmes tailored to match the flying habits of a company or individual. If you are a global company or an individual explorer that cares deeply about the planet, 4AIR simplifies the process of offsetting your carbon footprint. In our conversation Kennedy describes the advancements in electric aviation and contrail avoidance that are evolving sustainable aviation. 

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Kennedy understands the desire to travel the world, and the difficulty that comes with being an avid traveller with strong environmental values. Instead of making the world smaller by advocating for less flying miles, Kennedy tells me how his combined passion for aviation and sustainability was a driving force behind the creation of 4AIR: ‘Aviation has such a history of innovation. If you look at a flight deck today compared to 50 years ago, there’s so much innovation in the technology that we’re using, and tremendous improvements in safety. This is an ethos we can apply now to the sustainability challenge.’ Kennedy is rightly very proud of his company’s early success; he tells me that since launching in 2021 4AIR has offset over 6 million metric tons of CO2 across over 100 clients. 

Kennedy clearly cares about customer experience, ensuring that 4AIR simplifies the process of carbon offsetting as much as possible for each client: ‘We’ll do the carbon footprint, we’ll procure carbon offsets and we’ll purchase sustainable aviation fuels. We’ll even coordinate research grants with universities on electric aviation, hydrogen, contrail avoidance and airspace optimizations.’ Our conversation turns to the importance of a standardized comparison of commitment levels. Kennedy explains that this was a significant motivation behind the launch of his business. 4AIR offers four voluntary program levels, beginning at Bronze with a 100% offset of CO2 emissions. The silver rating requires a 300% carbon offset, while gold is a minimum 5% emissions reduction and platinum involves a contribution to the Aviation Climate Fund. 

Simplifying Regulatory Compliance

When 4AIR launched back in 2021, the two main market mechanisms regulating CO2 emissions in aviation were CORSIA and EU ETS. Kennedy explains that the increasing complexity of the regulatory landscape encouraged him to expand the focus of 4AIR beyond voluntary programs: ‘The regulatory environment has become so complex for an aircraft operator, even just within the last 5 years. So tell us where you’re flying, and we’ll look at what potential environmental programs you might have to comply with or report to.’  Kennedy expresses pride in the ability of 4AIR to keep companies flying compliant, including the monitoring of activity thresholds. These emissions thresholds trigger after a certain number of flying miles, potentially catching operators off-guard. 

Kennedy provides further detail on the benefit 4AIR can provide operators navigating aviation’s complex regulatory landscape: ‘We’ll help you assess what the potential penalties or taxes might be, depending on where you’re flying. We cover about 25 different programs, mostly with the US and Europe. We just try to make it very easy for people.’ Kennedy shows a positive opinion of regulatory policy that is driving forward decarbonisation, but suggests that the increasing complexity and punitive nature of some policy is counter-productive to the end goal of sustainable aviation. Kennedy emphasises that 4AIR also monitors new and emerging requirements, ensuring compliance despite the rapidly evolving regulatory environment. 

How Compliance Mechanisms Work

Kennedy explains that the EU ETS, the EU emissions trading system, operates as a cap and trade carbon market. It caps emissions, requiring companies to buy allowances and therefore incentivise them to lower their emissions. Kennedy explains that this shows up in the aviation space as purchases of sustainable aviation fuel or new aircraft. In terms of carbon offsets, Kennedy makes it clear that 4AIR only works with verified solutions: ‘They go through multiple rounds of audits and regulatory approvals. The project design is audited and independently verified to ensure that you’re following an approved methodology for how to monitor the emission reductions that are generated’.

Due to the need for clear and accurate monitoring, 4AIR regularly works with carbon offset projects in renewable energy. Kennedy gives further detail on this mechanism: ‘You can support these projects either through the purchase of renewable energy directly, or from the carbon reductions created by displacing fossil fuel generated electricity in a grid.’ Kennedy explains that in certain locations such as Turkey or India, where coal is still cheaper than renewable energy, such investment can support the production of a new solar or wind farm. Kennedy clarifies that carbon credits can only be claimed on such projects for the first 10 years. After this period they continue to operate, driving down the price of renewable energy in the area. 

The Future of Sustainable Aviation and AI

To end our conversation I introduce the topic of future developments in the sustainable aviation space. Kennedy provides an example of how he uses AI in the Assure SAF Registry to link which feedstock mixes were used for different fuel batches. He explains that this enables calculation of the exact reduction in CO2 emissions from a particular fuel batch. Kennedy shares the benefit of this tool: ‘Tracing all the way back to the source of where it was produced gives you a lot more transparency and traceability to claim on the emission reductions that you’re supporting.’ Kennedy then introduces the topic of contrails, the cloudy trails that mark flight paths all across the sky. 4AIR is working with groups using AI to monitor and track the regions contrails are most often produced. 

Kennedy explains that contrails are significant because of their associated warming effect. He details how AI technology can help to identify small altitude adjustments that reduce their production by up to 50%. Kennedy shows a lot of enthusiasm for the work 4AIR is doing to support the development of a contrail forecast to help guide the decisions of pilots and Air Traffic Control. However he shows significant awareness of the difficulty in proving the beneficial effects of contrail avoidance. Kennedy also explains the challenge of comparing carbon and contrails: ‘Carbon resides in the atmosphere for hundreds of years. Contrails are 18 hours, so it’s like comparing a microwave to an oven. The challenge is how do we equate the impacts?’ What is clear is the dedication of Kennedy and his team at 4AIR to finding out the answers. 

‘Aviation has such a history of innovation. If you look at a flight deck today compared to 50 years ago, there’s so much innovation in the technology that we’re using, and tremendous improvements in safety. This is an ethos we can apply now to the sustainability challenge’